Gosport

Formation and early years

Gosport Borough Athletic Club were founded in 1944 in an initiative to bring back organised football, athletics, swimming and cycling to the town of Gosport after a break of several years.

In their first season (1944–45), the football section of the Club won the Portsmouth and District League Division One under the guidance of former Southampton player, Stan Cribb. The line-up at that time included Jimmy Scoular and Peter Harris, who both went on to become full internationals.

For their second season, the club were accepted into the Hampshire League and won the Division One title at their first attempt. This feat was not repeated for thirty-one seasons, despite the club being a major force in Hampshire football during that period.

The Southern League: 1978 to 1992

Under the management of the long-serving former club skipper Tony Brickwood and Peter Edgar, Gosport won the Hampshire League title in successive seasons (1976–77 and 1977–78) and were elected to the Southern Football League. In the team's first four seasons, they never finished outside the top four and when the League was restructured for the start on the 1982–83 season, Gosport were placed in the Premier Division.

Two years later, Gosport lost their Premier Division status and were relegated to the Southern Division. However, the next season saw the team bounce straight back after an incredible run of sixteen wins in their final nineteen matches. "Boro'" still needed to win the final match to be certain of promotion and, in front of a home crowd in excess of 1,500, they demolished Salisbury 5–0.

In the 1987–88 season, the team were once again threatened with relegation, and until the April of that season Boro' had looked odds-on favourites for the drop. However, a run in the Hampshire Senior Cup that took the side all the way to the final – played at The Dell, home of then-Football League First Division club Southampton, lifted the players' spirits. Victory over favourites Farnborough in the final was followed by a good run of results in the league – lifting the team out of trouble to remain in the Premier Division.

The club enjoyed their highest ever finish in the 1988–89 season, when seventh place in the Premier Division was achieved. Unfortunately, a mass exodus of players and a change in the management saw the team relegated to the Southern Division the following season, before a further relegation to the Wessex League in 1992.

Wessex League: 1992 to 2007

Following relegation, the chairman at the time, Ian Hay, appointed Roger Sherwood as manager. Although Boro' had three good seasons under Sherwood, the Wessex League Cup in 1992–93 was, in his first season in charge, his only major success.

After the departure of Sherwood at the start of the 1995–96 season, the Management Committee undertook a review of the club's policies, the result of which was to commence a period of financial consolidation and re-structuring.

Three former Gosport players, John Hawes, Dave Pitt, and Barry Cook, took up the running of the side, with a new emphasis on forming a team of locally based players and developing an extensive youth policy.

In 1997, Boro' approached Gomer Football Club, a successful youth club, to form an affiliation. This presented the senior side with the opportunity to tap into emerging local talent, while also providing this talent with a chance to aim for a higher standard of football than may have been achieved normally after youth football.

Nevertheless, Boro's position in the Wessex League continued to deteriorate. Dave Pitt and Barry Cook resigned in October 1999, after a particularly difficult start to the 1999–2000 season. John Hawes became chairman of the club, but resigned from that position after one year to return to his coaching role.

During this period, Ian Hay restructured the club's finances and implemented a new and relatively unique Trustee Scheme, which gave the club a firm financial base for the future. Dave Taviner, another former player, took over as caretaker manager until former reserve team manager Mick Marsh was appointed as the new first team manager in December 1999.

At the start of the 2000–01 season, Vice-chairman John Stimpson was elected to the Chairmanship of the club. He immediately agreed with Marsh that the club should continue to develop young local players and also look to include a mix of more experienced players in the first team.

Marsh, along with his assistant Gary Lee, spent five seasons as manager. In that period, the club's gradual decline was halted and Boro' were once again headed in the right direction. In Marsh's five seasons, the club finished in the top four of the Wessex League on four occasions and reached the quarter-finals of the FA Vase in 2003–04.

With Marsh retiring from the game at the end of the 2004–05 season to move to Spain, the club appointed John Robson as his successor; Robson's tenure only lasted a few months, and, in December 2005, the club appointed Alex Pike as first team manager. Pike came to Gosport with relative pedigree, having the honour of being the Wessex League's most successful manager; having won league and league cup honours on several occasions with his teams and also winning the FA Vase with Wimborne Town in 1992, his appointment seemed appropriate for a club aiming for promotion back to the Southern League.

In his first full season in charge, Pike lived up to his high reputation, and Boro' lifted the Wessex League championship title – their first title in 29 years. The championship was won on the last day of the season at title rivals AFC Totton; Boro' had to avoid defeat by two goals to lift the title and, in a nervous afternoon, eventually lost 1–0 to win the championship on goal difference.

Having captured the title, Boro' officials and supporters waited for the news from The Football Association on their application for promotion. Two weeks after lifting the title, promotion was confirmed and Boro' were elected back into the Southern League for the 2007–08 season.

The Southern League return: 2007 to 2013

Things started well for The Boro' on their return to the Southern League – at one point the side sat third in the Southern League Division One South & West table. However, a poor run of results before and after the Christmas period saw Gosport falling off the pace and towards the lower reaches of the table, before a more balanced side picked themselves up and strung together a solid run of results to lift the team to a creditable 11th-placed finish by the end of the campaign.